And, like the first two books "Jumper" and "Reflex," I was physically unable to stop reading it until I finished. The man knows how to pace.
It's called "Griffin's Story." Apparently Griffin is a character that was created for the new "Jumper" movie due out this Christmas, another Jumper with unknown motives. This book serves as his back story and doesn't touch on the other two books at all. There are a few elements here that I hope he clears up in another book, some possible contradictions, but it stands alone wonderfully.
Griffin, a boy who started teleporting at 6, has grown up with the inviolate rules laid down by his worried parents. Never jump. If you do, don't let anyone see you. And, when he's 9, just once it happens, and all hell breaks loose.
Literally. While there is still some lighthearted moments and romance, this is a much darker book than the first two. Where the agents after Davy in Jumper wanted to control him and could be shamed into good behavior from the fear of exposure, the people after Griffin are not trying to capture him, and he becomes darker in response. I'm guessing he's a darker character in the movie and this helps explain why.
"Griffin's Story" works as a stand-alone book and a damn good one. But go read the other two first if you haven't yet. To paraphrase OSC in his review of "Jumper," they are ideal examples of how even the oldest plot device becomes fascinating when someone knows how to use it. And Gould clearly does.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Sorry, the movie is due out in February, '08. Hadn't noticed it had moved.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
I'll read it, but I think it's a shame Gould is finding himself unable to generate interest in anything else he writes. Helm, for instance, was terrific, and far better than Reflex. Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Of his books, I'd probably go Jumper, Wildside, Helm, Reflex, Griffin, Blind Waves, with the eco book after that.
Just checked out the movie website and I'm having a bad feeling. I understand that making a movie out of a book that's largely introspection is a problem, but they seem to have added a whole mythology and Hollywooded it up. Now Jumpers have existed throughout time and people called Paladdins kill them as they find them. And Davy's first jump came in a near-death drowning accident.
I suspect this is going to be yet another movie I can enjoy only if I completely disassociate it from the book. And that's a damn shame.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
Huh. I would put Wildside down with Blind Waves. It felt like a Jumper rehash.
In four years or so of looking, I have never seen Greenwar in a bookstore. And I look for it every time I go into one.